The Soundtrack of Our LivesA Double Album in Prose​by Annie Christie

Genre:DramaSwearwords: None.Description:For anyone who has ever got lost in music!

​Disc OneSide Two

Mis-Spent Youths

Holdin' on to sixteen as long as you canChange is coming 'round real soonMake us woman and man (John Cougar)

​Track TwelveWhat’s the name of the game?Does it mean anything to you?(Abba)~ You're the One That I Want, 1977-78 ~​

In August 1977, Grant had left school and gone to College. Rachel was in 6th form. We were in S5 doing our Highers. I managed to stay in the same set for Chemistry with Billy. But he did Physics and I didn’t. I did Modern Studies instead. He was in Geography when I was in History. He was in German when I was in Latin. We weren’t in the same English class. And I was doing Spanish when he was doing Biology. That was school. A serious impairment to one’s life.

He’d binned off orchestra because of ‘artistic’ differences with the conductor – Billy refused to play classical style. I wasn’t doing fencing any more because my parents were keen I stayed home and studied for my Highers. Rachel had never quite forgiven me for Billy’s birthday debacle, and Laura and Rachel were spending more time together, and I hardly even saw Billy outside of Chemistry until the Halloween Disco of 1977 which marked two years of Billy and Rachel going out together. (Give or take the odd awkward mini-break.) I had nothing and I had nothing to look forward to.

I looked back and reflected how much had changed over the past two years. From Bohemian Rhapsody, Hold Me Close and Space Oddity we were now in a land of Name of the Game and You’re in My Heart. Unless you were Doobs. He’d got lost in the world of Status Quo and was Rockin’ all over the world.

Grant, with whom I was never sure if I was ‘going out’ or not, threatened to gate-crash the Disco, but he never came. I wasn’t sure if I was pleased or not. I kind of thought it would give me some street cred with the likes of Stevie, but then again, I didn’t really want to be mauled by Grant. I couldn’t quite ‘trust’ him – from that first time on the bus he’d been pushing me to ‘go further’ and I didn’t really want to, certainly not with him. But Billy and Grant seemed to be getting ‘tight’ and Laura was going out with a boy called Norrie who went to college with Grant, so if I didn’t keep in with him I missed out entirely.

But no Grant meant no Norrie and Billy and Rachel were wrapped up in each other so Laura and I danced round our metaphorical handbags together.

That year the charts still served as weapons of the clique you were in – or not. The boys had Tom Robinson, Status Quo while we girls preferred David Soul, George Benson and Mary Mason – Angel of the Morning was played to death at all the Discos that autumn term. I swear I remember it being played at least three times on that one night – we had a teacher who thought it was cool to allow us ‘requests’ but didn’t spot that we were requesting the same song over and over again because to him it was all just so much ‘noise’ – or perhaps it was because, as someone suggested, he was hanging out round the back with other things on his mind. I wasn’t interested in him or in teachers in general. They were a world apart from us.

At the Halloween disco I remember Laura told me the teacher was ‘banging’ one of the other teachers. So what? Then Scooby, who in true Scooby style had brought Laura and me cokes and begged us to dance with him, which we didn’t, told me it wasn’t a teacher, it was a student. Either way, Angel of the Morning went on to indefinite repeat until Doobs got fed up and replaced it with No More Heroes. As he hoved into view, Doobs switched the record quickly to Yes Sir, I can Boogie, and I swear I never saw a teacher, not even a PE teacher, move that fast.

After that for ages folks used to go sing Yes Sir I can Boogie whenever they passed that teacher in the corridor. But it was Angel of the Morning that stuck in my head. Nothing that ‘big’ was played again until Robbie Williams Angels. What is it with the word Angel? It certainly seems to bring out the devil in folk. Because Robbie Williams certainly wasn’t an angel now, was he, for all the clean living Take That Boyband image that filled our airwaves in the early nineties, long after I’d transformed from girl to woman and shouldn’t be listening to, or lusting after, boys.

I don’t really know what Rachel and Billy’s songs were at that time, not so much because they kept themselves to themselves, which they did, but they kept away from me. I was relationship toxic. I didn’t help myself. In November I went back to the Italian café – waiting for Grant and put on You’re In My Heart – and just as Rod went into ‘I didn't know what day it was, When you walked into the room, I said hello unnoticed, You said goodbye too soon’ Billy, Rachel and Grant all came in. I got a beamer, especially when the next song came on ‘I was an impossible case, no-one ever could reach me. But I think I can see in your face, there’s a lot you can teach me.’

They all laughed. Grant went up to the jukebox and put on a song I’d never heard before, that made me want to cry – and not in a good way. It was the first time I heard Blondie and it was Rip her to shreds. It was hard to believe it wasn’t aimed at me: she looks like she washes with Comet, Always looking to create a scene, Yeah, she's so dull, come on rip her to shreds.

But I pretended I didn’t get it. I didn’t want to believe Grant could be so cruel. To be fair, no one laughed. Billy even went over to the jukebox and put on Modern World. As I watched him, I heard his angst: I've learned more than you'll ever knowEven at school I felt quite sure, That one day I would be on top, And I'd look down upon the map, The teachers who said I'd be nothing.

And realised we were all on a journey to something better. Next on the jukebox was Bowie’s Heroes – and that sealed it for me. However I managed it, while Billy and Rachel might be lovers, and that’s a fact… who might be heroes forever and ever, I would somehow manage to steal time, just for one day and when I did I knew that we can be us, just for one day. While the charts were feeding us Mull of Kintyre and the Floral Dance, it was Bowie who gave us something to live for.

~ ~ ~

And before we knew it we were in 1978. The big event for that year was always going to be Rachel’s 18th birthday. If you didn’t get an invitation for that you’d be a nobody. I only got an invitation because I went with Grant. It had been a smart move not to burn my bridges there – but I still couldn’t figure him out. He acted like he owned me, he was constantly on at me to go further, and then, when Rachel came into view he would just drop me like a brick.

Rachel’s birthday was a Monday so she had the party on Saturday 11th. Billy predicted right and bought her Take a chance on Me, which became number one the next day. He couldn’t bring himself to buy her Figaro by the Brotherhood of Man and in the end it was a good call.

Though Figaro got a look in, of course. We had a saying in those days: instead of No one expects the Spanish Inquisition (a Monty Python favourite) we would say ‘No one expects the Brotherhood of Man.’ When Rachel opened her present from Billy and said ‘thank goodness it wasn’t Figaro, I would never have forgiven you,’ Grant broke the mood by putting it on the Hi-fi.

‘Come on Rachel,’ he said, ‘dance it with me.’

And because Billy wouldn’t, she did.

I should point out that the party was at Grant and Laura’s house because their parents were away on a skiing trip. So of course Grant was designated DJ and was in charge of their parents’ hugely expensive Hi-Fi. And he who controls the music, controls the mood.

For the party, Billy and Rachel had pooled all their birthday and Christmas records and Grant supplied the ‘chart’ songs. At the time I thought he had a weird predilection for disco – but looking back I wondered if he was just trying to wind Billy up. It was one weird evening all round, really.

Everyone knew that Rachel loved Fleetwood Mac. She was a Stevie Nicks look alike but in those days we didn’t have the kind of money needed to buy albums. We bought singles. Well, Grant bought the LP of Rumours for Rachel’s 18th. We thought that was strange. We knew she loved the songs. But it had ‘their’ song on it didn’t it? Billy and Rachel’s. It seemed a bit inappropriate, and I saw Billy squirm just a bit. But then Grant was at college and so he had more disposable income.

I couldn’t help feeling bad for Billy when Grant gave it to her and her eyes lit up. But at least he didn’t barge Billy out of the way as they danced together right through side one without a break. Grant danced with me on Go Your Own Way and Songbird but when he changed to side two he danced to all five minutes of The Chain with Rachel. I swear I saw Grant whispering the lyrics And if you don't love me now, You will never love me again in her ear. She just laughed. But she went back to dance You Make Lovin’ Fun with Billy. I guess we all just thought she was having a laugh on her birthday.

Grant backed off then, almost imperceptibly, and got into his job as DJ. I remember Wishing on a Star and Up town Top Ranking contended with Blondie’s Denis, Denis and What do I get? by the Buzzcocks took on Billy Joels’ Just the Way You Are . And then there was Baker Street. That was better than Solesbury Hill meets MacArthur Park and some. At least you felt it made sense.

There was quite a lot of booze flowing, and things got a bit silly. Grant put on Hold Me Close and everyone demanded that Billy and Rachel dance to it. They got their own back by performing If I had Words as a duet to show they could take a joke.

Then ‘the boys’ did Bohemian Rhapsody. By that time a lot of alcohol had been consumed. Scooby was pretty soon throwing up in the garden. Back in the sitting room I heard Wuthering Heights for the first time. I was trying not to notice Rachel and Billy snuggled up on the sofa completely lost in each other, never mind the music. I don’t know if he was really that clever, but with Wuthering Heights Grant regained Rachel’s attention. She loved it so much she left Billy sitting there and made Grant play it five times in a row.

Things got a bit out of control after that. Stevie was making a fool of himself trying to do a Kate Bush. So Grant kicked ‘the boys’ out. They weren’t happy. Billy ‘escorted them off the premises’ while Rod Stewart was crooning I was only Joking in the background. He came back in to find Rachel dancing to Dreams with Grant who had put the birthday LP on again. Billy scowled at Rachel. ‘You weren’t there,’ she said. He let it go. He started to dance with Laura for Never Going Back Again, but then, Don’t Stop came on, and there was only one conclusion. Romance won out. At least for Billy and Rachel. They were still dancing during Go Your Own Way and by the time we got to You Make Loving Fun, for the second time I snuck out. Grant had promised he’d walk me home but I had an idea what was on his mind. My parents had given me a late curfew of eleven, as long as Grant brought me home. So I went home alone, in good time, chewing peppermints all the way in case they could smell the vodka.

So the last I saw of them that night Rachel was having the best time and Billy was at least playing at being ‘lost in music’. After all it was her party. But I think the cracks were beginning to show by the second side of the album.

Maybe Billy felt he was being outclassed by Grant. Maybe he’d planned it anyway, but on Monday he gave Rachel an album he’d bought her. An extra birthday present. It was Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside. It made a point but it also told her he was listening. Maybe he even hoped it would wean her off the disco crap. He also bought her a ring which she wore on a chain round her neck. I wasn’t there when he gave it to her so I don’t know if he’d been aiming for engagement or even exclusivity, if so he fell short. While Rachel accepted both gifts with grace, as far as I’m aware, I don’t think the ring ever went on any of her fingers. Still, love’s young dream seemed to be back on. And she bought him Night Fever by the Bee Gees for his 17th birthday on May 4th 1978 without a hint of irony, I’m sure.

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About the Author

​Annie Christie is a pretty ordinary person, except that she was born Annie Christie and then married a man called Christie and so is still called Christie despite having taken on her husband’s name. She sometimes wonders if she should have called herself Christie-Christie: but who would believe that?

Born near Drum of Wartle in Aberdeenshire, Annie moved as swiftly as possible to a place with a less bizarre name – Edinburgh – but the bizarreness chased her and she now lives with her husband Rab in rural Galloway, with a Kirkcudbrightshire postcode. (That's Cur coo bree shire to the uninitiated.) She is an active member of the Infinite Jigsaw Project.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives is Annie's fourth McSerial written for McStorytellers.